I didn’t do a very good job of logging my practices this week. So I’m logging them here all in one post. Hopefully. Let’s start with Tuesday. On the 17th I practiced mostly at 30. And took these pictures.

Tuesday After Work Practixe

I felt pretty good here because I was grouping. Not super tightly, but the goal was not to be uber dialed in at 30. Just to do well enough to justify the next step.

And I took a pretty nice picture of my set up

Because Just Looking at It Motivates Me

Thursday started out good at 50 meters.

No more 30m for me. On the road to 70!

And continued right up until dark.

Bright nocks make arrows easier to see at dusk 🙂

Again. The goal wasn’t to get uber dialed in at 50. Just get good enough to move on to 70. And that happened on Saturday. I shot for almost 3 hours with my coach, and officially shot my first end at 70 meters on Saturday.

Grouping at 50m. Time to move to 70!

And then, Sunday. After a lot of shooting already this week, and a Saturday night of staying up late playing games with a houseful of friends. And maybe drinking. A little. I hopped on out to the range today all full of confidence. Which promptly got shattered.

Low, Left and Off the Bale

At least I grouped. Even if it was on the ground 😦

Next practice date is Tuesday March 24. We’ll see if I can get back to 70.

The last week has been full of shooting and new things! The Central Texas Shoot Off Uno! is in two weeks. My coach recommended I participate.

One problem. I’ve never shot 70 meters before! And the idea was a little daunting until I actually started shooting longer distances.

I started out at 30 meters. Trying to get both my sight and my form in line. My split finger tabs weren’t in yet, so I was still shooting 3 under.

30 meters on Wednesday

On Wednesday I was pretty low. And not grouping. I’ve been working on my new anchor for a while now, and I just didn’t have it down yet. Plus other problems. My bow arm was collapsing inwards, to the point that I would get to full draw and think wow this feels really cramped. Only to discover that my elbow was bent. Let down and try again.

Friday at 30 meters

On Friday I was improving a lot! And by the end I was able to group on and around the tiny five spot face that had been taped to the target. My bow arm was still collapsing, but not nearly as often. I was opening up again. And my anchor was…better.

It had been raining all day Friday, and was so wet that we didn’t want to risk driving the cars down the dirt road so we left them parked up top. I have never been so grateful for my new Easton backpack bow case. It made hiking up and down the hill a breeze! And was very comfortable on my shoulders.

I did try shooting 50 meters Friday evening. It was close to dark and I didn’t get a picture. Which was OK, because I don’t think I made it onto the bale anyway 🙂

Saturday I had a lesson outdoor with my coach. I got to put on the new limbs, Hoyt 720’s. And they are so smooth it makes me wonder why I ever shot with anything else! And I got to try out the new split finger tabs. The AAE KSL aluminum tab needs trimming. It was almost impossible to shoot with. The W&W 360 is what I used, because I could shoot with it, with some difficulty, without any trimming. And I finally got that anchor nailed. We started again at 30 meters.

So much improvement!

And then moved on to 50 meters. My coach asked, “how does it feel to be working on your anchor and on transfer and holding at 50 meters?” And all I could think was this is freaking awesome!

Grouping at 50 Meters!

Who would have thought that I could group at 50 meters on my first day? Some of the lower arrows were caused by the string hitting my jacket, which slowed velocity. But I fixed that later in the day by picking up some long sleeve hoodies that snugly fit my arms so I can shoot without freezing. Coach’s quick fix was to wrap her Columbia chill zone sleeve around my bow arm with the jacket on. So now I need a pair of those, too! But proof that when I do it right form wise, I can do the distance. Just need to work on aiming.

This week I’ll be shooting 50 meters and preparing for 70. I can hardly believe I’m actually doing this!

Forget your quiver, which has your finger sling and tab in it. Decide to borrow a tab from the range, which doesn’t fit and has a horrible feeling spacer in it. Decide to shoot without the finger sling, so that you now have 2 fingers on the riser at all times.

Put on shiny new stabilizer. Shoot first three rounds with weight and vibration dampener on the end. Realize the weight is dragging your arm down. Taken off weight and dampener.

Realize that you’ve only had a few hours to practice with your new anchor point, because the weather screwed you over and you couldn’t get to the range all week.

Proceed to shoot way right the whole time.

Score 145/300.

But. Be proud, because after those first three rounds you started focusing less on the target and more on your form.

Go home. Immediately rearrange gear bag to contain quiver, which was hanging neatly on its hanger the whole time.

Let’s call this picture the beginning. I was struggling with my anchor for weeks. I just couldn’t get exactly where I needed to be. I kept feeling as if I were fighting an invisible ghost (that happens a lot to me) – some nebulous “something” that wasn’t correct but that I couldn’t diagnose. The alignment of the string during the draw wasn’t correct. It would end up on the left side of my nose and mouth, at my left eye. But with how I shoot, it should be lining up center / center right.

What was going wrong?

I thought it was my head. If I lifted my chin and strained against tight neck muscles to make sure I had my chin lined up over my left shoulder, I could almost fix the problem. Almost, but not quite.

So during my last lesson we worked on diagnosing the problem. I was straight, my head did need to be turned a little more. Nothing huge to fix. So Coach said “just draw back as far as you can, then anchor. See where the anchor falls”. I had, of course, been anchoring under my chin. Turns out my draw length has lengthened again in the time I’ve been shooting. I needed to be anchoring at the back of the jaw.

I am short. My draw length was measured last fall at something like 25 1/2 inches. Standard measurement is 28″. So you can imagine my elation when we made the realization that my draw length is now longer!!! I don’t have the new measurement yet. But if I can be hitting 27 inches that would be fantastic!

So, I started anchoring at the back of my jaw. The string lined up over my right eye, center on nose, slightly right on lips. WOOT! And. Suddenly. My groups got tighter.

After changing anchor, at 8m

Talk about tightening up the circle!

After the lesson I sidled over to the 18m lane to continue working on the new anchor point.

More Gold, Please! At 18m

I suffered a few bow arm issues that sent one arrow into the red. But do you see the other two? That’s gold, baby!

I still need to fine tune my sight. But I can’t really do that until my anchor is a little more consistent and settled. A few more days of practice should let me be consistent enough to know what, if any, changes need to be made to my sight settings. But I’m so happy that the changes to me yielded such immediate results!

I’ll admit it. I lagged about blogging. Blew it off for a while. You see, there didn’t seem to be a lot to write about. After the Longhorn Invitational I was in a very transitional period. I had just made the switch from Barebow to Olympic Recurve, but I didn’t have any Olympic Recurve equipment.

Add to that the fact that the range close to my home shut down right before Christmas and I was in a big funk when it came to archery.

How would I practice? What would I practice with? How was I going to reach all those lofty goals I dreamed about?

I wanted my range back, with its form room with mirrors where I had managed to make so much progress. Where it wasn’t so insanely busy all the time that getting through a private lesson is sometimes difficult.

I wanted to pout about not being able to use my own bow anymore, because as much as I love my Samick Polaris, its just not made for all the sights and stabilizers and plungers and clickers an Olympic Recurve competition bow needs. Oh, its drilled for them. But the plungers and sight don’t fit because the wooden riser is thicker than the machined aluminum recurve risers. So the parts don’t play well together.

Then. It came. A dear friend of mine surprised me by buying me probably the best Olympic recurve riser on the market. And dear god is it beautiful. In a textured matte black with a grip that fits my (admittedly small) hand like a freaking dream.

The Man bought me everything else but limbs (we have to budget these things out, or not eat). The shiny silver plunger and the delicate shiny black arrow rest and the I-didn’t-know-they-made-strings-like-that string. And the bag to carry it all in. And more arrows.

Another good friend sauntered over to me at the range and said, basically, “use my awesome Samick limbs and these other awesome carbon wood limbs until yours come in. I’m not shooting anyway”. And my jaw dropped and I wanted to cry.

Because now I had a bow again.

He is named Raptor

There is still work to do. The tax refund check will buy a v-bar stabilizer system, a split finger tab, and a set of Hoyt 720 limbs.

My first outdoor competition is in a month, the Uno at University of Texas in Austin. And I am beyond excited!!! My coach is excited, too. Coach Holly kept me motivated enough while being sympathetic and understanding of my slump. I cannot say enough about her. I cannot rave enough about the kindness and generosity of the people I shoot with.